


Salience

by deepestbluest



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bottom Hatake Kakashi, Established Relationship, Five Plus One, M/M, No that will not stop me, Yes five plus one is fanfic cliche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 07:00:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23847115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepestbluest/pseuds/deepestbluest
Summary: Five times Kakashi wanted something he couldn't ask for and one time he got it.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 18
Kudos: 340





	Salience

**Author's Note:**

> Salience (n): the quality of being particularly noticeable or important; prominence

1.

Iruka is trying to work.

If Kakashi waits a little while, Iruka will give him his undivided attention. That's all Kakashi’s wants; he's bored and as cute as Iruka looks as he concentrates on grading papers, he'd be cuter if he were concentrating on Kakashi.

Iruka can't help that Kakashi came back from a long mission the night after an important written test. He was more accommodating than he usually would be when Kakashi slipped in through his window to say hello- he tugged Kakashi into his lap and set his papers aside while he kissed Kakashi and patted him down, looking for signs of injuries Kakashi wouldn't tell him about.

He'd pushed Kakashi out of his lap before Kakashi could get his hands up Iruka’s shirt, though, citing a need to finish grading that he wouldn't wind up doing if he let Kakashi keep going.

There's a compliment in that, but Kakashi is still stuck lying on his side, watching Iruka pay attention to other things.

They've been together for almost six months. Kakashi has never felt the itch to be the center of someone’s focus for this long before. It's disconcerting- less now than it was when he first realized he wanted Iruka like this, but he acclimated.

It's more than just wanting Iruka’s attention, though. He gets Iruka’s attention most of the time. If anything, the itch he can't shake gets worse when Iruka is ignoring everything else to watch Kakashi.

Pushing Iruka’s buttons until Iruka gets annoyed and gives it back to him makes the feeling easier to manage but doesn't satisfy it.

Tipping onto his back when Iruka is manhandling him onto the bed and settling on top of Kakashi, his body heavy and his hands knowing, makes it even easier; in that moment, he doesn't feel the twitch at all.

It comes back when he flips them over and strips Iruka down.

He's felt like this with other people, but this is the first time it's felt important.

Kakashi isn't a genius for nothing. He can put two and two together and come up with an answer. What might be the answer. What might even be an important answer.

It might be- and as far as Kakashi is concerned, “might be” is close enough to “doesn't have to be”.

Even if he could find a way to explain it that wouldn't require more talking, Iruka likes things as they are. Kakashi isn't unhappy, far from it. There's no need to rock the boat when he doesn't need to.

As Iruka sets the last paper aside and stretches, Kakashi is reminded of how good Iruka’s weight is when he's sitting on top of Kakashi, glorying in the victory of having wrestled Kakashi and successfully come out on top.

“Tired?” Iruka asks, bringing Kakashi back to reality.

His smile is soft, one he saves for times like this.

Kakashi doesn't want to risk this. He’s happy, and Iruka is happy. There's no itch he wants to scratch so badly it's worth the possibility of upending this.

“Long mission,” Kakashi says, which is both the truth and a lie.

Iruka puts on an obviously false pensive expression. “It's a little early to go to bed, but maybe we can find something to do. So we go to sleep on time.”

Kakashi nods. “If you're interested, I have an idea.”

Expression shifting, Iruka asks, “I’m always interested in you.”

The itch comes back when Iruka wrestles Kakashi to the mattress and pins him down, and for a moment, Kakashi stops thinking and just enjoys the weight of Iruka’s body holding him in place.

  
  


2.

Kakashi looks up from the bowls on the table to Iruka.

“You made all this?”

Iruka clears his throat. “Only most of it. I didn't have all the right tools.”

Kakashi looks back down at the table. Iruka isn't a good cook. He can make some simple dishes well, but he must have been practicing hard to be able to make all of this.

“Are we expecting company?”

Iruka shakes his head.

“Then why? It's not that I don't like it,” he says quickly. “I'm just a little lost. Did something good happen?”

“Other than you coming home? No, not really.” Iruka waves at Kakashi to sit down. “You eat enough, but only just. I know you don't mind cooking, but I thought maybe if I made it, you'd eat a little more.”

He looks uncertain.

Kakashi tries to make sense of that as he takes his seat across from Iruka. “You know I take care of myself.”

Iruka nods, but he only looks more unhappy.

For someone so straightforward, Iruka can be hard to understand.

Taking a breath, Kakashi says, “Then I still don't understand.”

“I want to take care of you.” Iruka’s face turns red. “I know you can look after yourself, but I’d like to help. I thought that cooking might do that.”

He's so earnest, it makes Kakashi’s heart hurt.

“You do take care of me,” KakashI reminds me, looking at Iruka out of the corner of his eye.

He watches, relieved, as Iruka smiles at him.

Clearing his throat, Kakashi reaches for the nearest bowl but nearly drops it when Iruka says, “You're really cute, you know.”

“Iruka!” Kakashi hisses, embarrassed and wrong-footed.

“What? You are.” Iruka’s smile stretches into a grin. Under the table, he nudges Kakashi’s shin with one of his feet. “Keep coming home to me so I can keep taking care of you.”

The itch comes to life, but Kakashi ignores it. Iruka doesn't know about it and never will. It doesn't belong at the table with them.

  
  


3.

Everyone is drunk but Iruka.

Kakashi knows Iruka isn't drunk because when Iruka drinks, he gets sleepy and tends to wander off on his own in search of somewhere to nap.

Watching him leave in search of a good place to sleep had been disappointing before they got together, but Kakashi doesn't have to stay behind with everyone else anymore. He has an exclusive, standing invitation to join Iruka now.

But Iruka isn't going off to sleep himself sober.

“Really, Kakashi,” Iruka says with a sigh. “You had to drink so much you can't walk?”

Kakashi hums, noncommittal. He could walk if he wanted to. He'd be unsteady and Iruka would get annoyed with him for wandering off, but Kakashi could walk if he wanted to.

If he wanted to.

Wrapped around Iruka as he is, Kakashi doesn't want to.

Piggyback rides are inherently undignified. There's no getting around it. Unlike Gai, who leans into that and runs around gleefully making a scene, Iruka walks slowly and moves steadily. Kakashi can relax into the steady motion of Iruka’s gait as he carries Kakashi through the village.

“Iruka,” Kakashi says, drawing out the last syllable.

“Kakashi,” Iruka says, mimicking Kakashi. He easily picks his way through a mess on the street.

Iruka really can be graceful. He's always working hard and not sleeping well, his daily life more like a civilian’s than a shinobi’s, so he sometimes seems clumsier than he is.

He slept well last night, though.

Kakashi helped with that.

Iruka is always working hard. Even if he isn't very strong, he's always working.

Kakashi looks after him as best he can, and somehow, he isn't doing a bad job.

It feels good to make Iruka happy. Other people don't get to do it. Iruka’s interest is fully with Kakashi.

His attention makes Kakashi feel warm; Kakashi would do impossible things to keep it.

“Hey,” Iruka says, bouncing Kakashi lightly. “Don't drift off when I’m talking to you. It's like you don't even care that I'm making fun of you.”

Kakashi hums himself.

This is someone else’s life. That person is going to come back eventually and put Kakashi back in his own, but it's nice to be here while he can.

Iruka shakes his head. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Means I like you,” Kakashi sighs. “Let's stay together for as long as we can.”

“That's usually the goal, you know.”

“I'm glad.”

Without letting go, Iruka pats Kakashi’s thigh with the fingers of one hand. “You squirm less than Naruto. I'll give you that.”

“Naruto doesn't like being carried,” Kakashi points out.

“But you do?”

Kakashi nods, nosing at Iruka’s ear as he does. “It's nice.”

“...I see.”

“Bad?” Kakashi asks.

Iruka shakes his head. “No, not bad.” He brushes his thumbs over Kakashi’s legs, just above his knees. “Not bad at all.”

His voice is soft like he's talking to himself, and Kakashi doesn't press him for an explanation, just adjusts his hold around Iruka and lets himself be carried.

The itch is burning, but Kakashi is drunk and happy.

  
  


4.

The floor is cold.

Kakashi concentrates on that as he lies on his belly on Iruka’s kitchen floor.

The floor is cold.

A light comes on sometime later, and Iruka sucks in a startled breath. “Kakashi?”

“Hi,” Kakashi says. “It's safe. I'm just on the floor.”

Iruka’s footsteps are ninja-quiet, but they could be quieter. He isn't very good at that sort of thing, though. He's always fussing, and even ninjas can't fuss stealthily.

Not to the degree Iruka fusses.

“What happened?” Iruka asks. He touches Kakashi’s cheek. “Did you get hurt?”

“No.”

“Kakashi.”

“I didn't.” Kakashi lets out a long breath. “The world really doesn't stop, does it?”

Fabric rustles as Iruka sits down beside him. “It doesn't.” He pets Kakashi's head. “Is there anything specific that it isn't stopping for?”

Kakashi shrugs.

Iruka keeps petting him.

“Aren't you angry with me?” he asks after a while.

Iruka’s hand stutters. “Angry with you for what?”

“Sasuke.”

“What about him?”

“I'm responsible for what he's done. His defection, the injuries of everyone who's been injured going after him, the things Orochimaru has done thanks to having him-”

“You aren't.”

It's rare for Iruka to put his foot down calmly. He's too energetic; every mood he has is easily ten times more boisterous than Kakashi’s.

Tilting his head, Kakashi looks up at Iruka.

Iruka, who's looking down at him as if Kakashi said something horrible.

“What did I-”

“Children hurt us,” Iruka says over him. “They grow up and make their own choices. Some of them are going to be good. A lot of them are going to be bad. You tried to keep Sasuke here; I know you did.”

“It wasn't enough.”

“And? Our world is impossible, Kakashi. If you're looking for someone to help you blame yourself for not living perfectly, you'll have to look elsewhere.” He scowls at Kakashi. “I don't know where you learned to be so hard on yourself, but that kind of thinking doesn't belong in my kitchen.”

He leans down and kisses the crown of Kakashi’s head.

Kakashi swallows. “Iruka…”

Iruka shakes his head. “I can't fix anything. I know you're unhappy, and I can't help with any of it.”

“I'm okay.”

Rubbing at his forehead, Iruka says, “You have no idea how much I wish that were true.”

“Iruka-”

“You're really important, you know.” He lays a hand on Kakashi’s. “Even if I have to hold your hands every day for the rest of your life, I won't let you keep beating yourself up.”

Kakashi doesn't say anything, but when Iruka eventually gets up, Kakashi follows him.

And when they crawl into bed together and Iruka pulls Kakashi's back to his chest, Kakashi doesn't care about the twitch in the back of his mind; he’s too relieved to be relaxing into being the little spoon.

It feels impossible, but Kakashi wants to believe Iruka. He wants Iruka to be able to keep Kakashi safe from his own hands.

  
  


5.

Another mission, another absence from Iruka’s side, another return home.

This one is unusual.

Instead of going right into the bedroom like they usually do when Iruka doesn't have anything else to do, they're stuck in the hallway. Kakashi is pressed face-first against Iruka’s bedroom door, his palms braced on the door, and Iruka has fitted himself to Kakashi’s back.

Kakashi swallows. Iruka is hard; he’s pressed so close, Kakashi can’t help but feel it.

Fingernails scraping the door as he closes his fists, Kakashi pushes back into him, and as he does, Iruka leans in harder, holding him flat against the door.

Iruka’s hands are braced on the door, too, his hands on either side of Kakashi, boxing him in.

Shinobi don't like being boxed in.

Other than the sinking feeling that it's going to stop, Kakashi can't find anything not to like about this. Even the twitch in the back of his mind isn't unbearable.

He's shaking, but he's still on edge from his mission.

Iruka will believe that.

“Are you okay?” Iruka asks. His breath is warm on the back of Kakashi’s neck; his voice sounds even better than it usually does.

Kakashi nods.

Iruka stills but doesn't move away. “I'd like to hear you say it.”

“That really isn't-”

“Don't argue with me when I’m checking on you,” Iruka says. He still hasn't moved. “I want to know if you're okay.”

Slowly, Kakashi says, “I’m okay.”

Iruka hums to himself. He kisses the side of Kakashi’s neck; it's an angle their usual arrangement doesn't let him reach.

“Just okay?” Iruka presses. “Or better?”

He noses at Kakashi’s shoulder, warm against the cold room.

“Better,” Kakashi admits quietly.

“But not as good as a minute ago.”

“Do we have to talk right now?”

The itch still hasn't come back, but he knows it will any moment now. If there's any chance Iruka will go back to what he was doing earlier, that would be perfect. Kakashi could get off like that; he wouldn't need Iruka to do more than what he had been. Kakashi could do the rest.

If Iruka would just let this go, it would be fine.

As if he heard the thought, Iruka sighs and steps back.

The itch comes back worse than ever.

“Kakashi.”

Forcing himself to turn around, Kakashi faces Iruka. “Let's just go to bed. We don't have to talk about it.”

“We do, actually.” Clearing his throat, Iruka asks, “You really aren't a top, are you?”

He looks uncomfortable, but his brows are quirked up. He doesn't look unhappy, only expectant. 

Swallowing hard, Kakashi shakes his head. “I am.”

“I see.” Iruka’s eyes flick over Kakashi’s face. “Well, I'm happy as we are, but I do like to top, so if you think you'd like to try something else, you should tell me.”

His cheeks are pink, and as Kakashi thinks back to the way Iruka pushed him around, the itch gets even worse.

“If I did want to try something else, what if I was wrong?”

“Then we’d go back to this.” Iruka takes a step closer again, and Kakashi’s heart starts to beat too fast as he realizes his back is already flat against the door. Iruka keeps coming closer until his thigh is between Kakashi’s legs.

Still hard, Kakashi can't help but push into it.

“We can always come back to what we know we like,” Iruka tells him. He touches Kakashi’s shoulder. “I think you’d like it if we did try things differently, though. And with things like this, don’t just keep quiet, okay? If there’s something you want to try, you should tell me. I can’t answer what I don’t know you’re asking.”

He doesn’t make Kakashi answer, kissing him softly instead, and Kakashi holds onto him too hard.

  
  


+1

The uniform most chūnin and jounin wear doesn't do much for any of them. Kakashi, whose body is lean even by shinobi standards, sometimes seems to get lost in his.

He isn't drowning in anything now.

Iruka can't see much of him, flat on his back in Kakashi’s bed as he is, but he can feel Kakashi’s solid weight. With Kakashi kneeling on top of him and leaning in so close he's almost pressed flat against Iruka as he rocks his hips, Iruka is the one drowning.

Kakashi hasn’t stopped kissing him since Iruka got back from his mission.

Iruka slowly runs his hands up Kakashi’s bare thighs, just to touch him.

For all the time it took to get him to be comfortable saying he wanted to try it, Kakashi hasn't wanted to do anything but bottom in months. He's more playful now, more demanding- more like himself. He pushes Iruka around as if his face doesn't clearly say he’s doing it to make Iruka push him back, and the tension Iruka couldn't make sense of that had always come with having sex is gone. Maybe he'll want to do things differently in time, but for now, he seems perfectly happy like this.

So long as he's happy, so is Iruka.

“I missed you,” Iruka says as Kakashi reluctantly pulls back to let him breathe.

Kakashi doesn't say anything aloud in reply, but the way he noses at Iruka’s cheek and rocks his hips faster, his hold on Iruka’s hip tightening sharply, says enough.

Iruka had been looking forward to curling up with Kakashi in bed when he got back, getting a start on making up for the two months he missed while he was working and Kakashi was recovering, but Iruka wouldn't pass up the rare time time to have sex when Kakashi is so desperate to have Iruka like this he kept fumbling with their clothes, his usual, carefully detached grace gone.

He's breathing hard now, and when Iruka says, “You feel so good,” his breath comes faster.

Kakashi kisses him again, and as he leans harder on Iruka’s chest, Iruka lets his hands move farther up Kakashi’s thighs until he can press his fingers in the hard muscle of Kakashi’s ass, squeezing hard enough to make Kakashi whine Iruka’s name.

They've been together for more than a year, but Iruka still marvels at how Kakashi’s body feels.

He's a powerhouse. 

Genius mind and terror in physical combat in one, there isn't much he can't do, but he comes to Iruka for this. This one thing, he can't do on his own as well as Iruka can give it to him.

Kakashi has been with other people, but the only one he wants to come home to is Iruka.

Iruka tilts his head, asking for another kiss, and Kakashi kisses him- after he says, “I thought about you every day, but it's not as good in my head.”

Iruka kisses him hard, knowing that's what Kakashi wanted him to do and happy with it, and when Kakashi tries to reach down and take himself in hand, Iruka beats him to it.

“Let me?”

Kakashi drops his head and rests his forehead on Iruka’s shoulder, his quiet, “Please,” almost lost in his heavy breathing. He lays his hand on the one Iruka still has on his ass, the other clenched in the sheets, and rolls his hips harder as he gets closer.

Iruka strokes him quickly, his head turned toward Kakashi. He tries to kiss Kakashi’s cheek, but he's breathing hard, too, already close after being apart and sent on a mission that was mostly waiting with nothing to do but think, and only manages to brush his lips to the side of Kakashi’s face.

He'd try to say something, encouragement or praise or just Kakashi’s name, but he can't think. It's hard to keep track of everything; his hands are doing different things, Kakashi makes a noise every time he sinks down that makes Iruka’s heart race faster, and Iruka wants Kakashi so much he has to close his eyes or his heart might give out.

Kakashi buries his face in the side of Iruka’s neck when he comes, his fingers digging in so hard it hurts.

Iruka keeps his eyes shut as Kakashi settles down on top of him, slowly catching his breath and telling Iruka to fuck him.

Whatever Iruka can give him is Kakashi’s.

Iruka doesn't pull out when he comes, and as he relaxes into the mattress, heartbeat returning to a safer speed, Kakashi kisses the side of his neck the way he does when he's deciding whether to leave a mark.

Belatedly realizing he's still holding Kakashi- and holding him hard- Iruka opens his eyes and his hands. He shakes the stiffness out of his arms before laying them over Kakashi’s back.

“You're cleaning up,” Kakashi informs him, rubbing his nose on Iruka’s jaw as he shifts, rearranging himself and stretching his legs. “Since you did that.”

He says “did that” as if he hadn't told Iruka before the mission that he'd be expecting Iruka to come home and come inside him.

Too comfortable to mind, Iruka kisses the side of Kakashi’s face and says, “I know.”

“Just making sure.”

Iruka lets his eyes fall shut. “I always take care of you, don't I?”

Kakashi hums. “You do.”

Iruka will have to get up in a minute or two, but for now, while his heart is still beating fast and Kakashi is blatantly leaving a hickey on Iruka’s neck, he can hold Kakashi and be glad he's home.

**Author's Note:**

> You can say hi on [tumblr](https://asotin.tumblr.com) if you'd like to!


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